


Lesser Prisoners

by catwing, Neigedens



Series: Pirate AU [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirates, Flashback, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 15:12:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1231129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catwing/pseuds/catwing, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neigedens/pseuds/Neigedens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Haruka was a child, he and his grandmother were kidnapped by pirates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lesser Prisoners

When Haruka woke, it was dark. There was an incredibly dim light, silvery and almost useless for seeing anything. He looked around, searching for anything. The last thing he remembered had been his grandmother’s arms around his as they sunk through the water, cold and heavy.

Suddenly he felt a weight on him. He wasn't scared since it was the same weight he'd felt leaving him before passing out. 

"Haruka," said his grandmother. "Stay where you are. You're hurt."

His first impulse was to sit up, even with his grandmother talking to him to in that stern tone, but even the slight movement made his chest and head ache. She was right; he'd taken a pummeling.

She felt the bones of his chest and told him to breathe in. "Does it hurt to inhale, Haruka?"

He inhaled and then shook his head.

"There's no sharp pain, even when you breathe in?"

He shook his head again.

"You're lucky you didn't break a rib," she said, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. 

"What about you?" asked Haruka. "Your shoulder." Even now that his eyes had adjusted to the dark, he couldn't make out anything more than her vague outline.

She ignored the question. " I told you to swim away."

He looked down and then to the side, even though there was nothing to look at, and he couldn't have made out her reproving expression even if he tried.

"We've talked before about you minding me. Remember?"

A different sort of discomfort overtook him: the sharp sting of shame. He looked down, nodded.

"You must mind me from now on," she said, in her flattest voice. He nodded again, still looking down. He felt hollow inside, partly because of embarrassment, and partly because he hadn't eaten anything since last night.

Suddenly he felt her hand on his chin. She tilted his face up and kissed him on the forehead. He sank against her gratefully, nearly collapsing into her lap like he hadn't since he was a baby. She stroked his hair back from his face. "I know you're hungry," she said. "I'll get them to bring you something. For now you should try to sleep again."

"What about you?" he asked again. He knew she had to be hungry too.

She still didn't answer. She continued stroking his hair, absentminded in a way she usually wasn't, and he fell into the uneasy haze that passes for sleep when you're waiting for something else to happen.

~

He must have fallen truly asleep again at some point. When he woke up, it wasn't because of his grandma. It was still nighttime, he could see by the small skylight, but a lantern was shining in his face.

A boy about his own age was holding the lantern up to get a better look at Haruka, gaping at him as if he were a zoo animal. "Wow," he said. "You really got dinged up, didn't you? Did you really try to swim back to Iwatobi when you were injured?"

If he had been paying more attention, this line of questioning might have angered Haruka. As it was, he was focused on one thing only: "Where's my grandma?"

The boy shrugged. "Somewhere. Why? Are you scared?"

Haruka glared at him. "No. Where is she?"

He shrugged again. "Talking to Rails, last I saw."

"And what are you doing here?" Normally Haru didn't like talking to strangers, particularly in a case like this, but something about this boy annoyed him more than frightened him. Haruka didn't object to talking to him, at least.

The boy laughed. He leaned against the wall in such a way that it made Haruka, who had never been in a tussle in his life, want to punch him in the face. "I'm guarding you! We don't allow outsiders to just sit around by themselves, without supervision, you know!"

Haruka narrowed his eyes at the boy and then looked away. Questions were bubbling in his head, but he didn't want to ask any of them of this strange, awful person. He didn't even want to speak until he saw his grandma again, because he couldn’t bear to let the boy see him get upset.

His other dominant emotion, almost to the exclusion of everything else, was hunger, but Haruka would no sooner ask the guard for food than he would break down into tears in front of him.

In awkward silence in the hold, Haruka could hear the waves lapping up against the hull. He guessed that he probably wasn't aboard the huge ship he'd seen earlier. That ship had appeared to have multiple decks even above the waterline, whereas this one probably only had one.

The guard boy had been affecting disdain or disinterest in Haruka, but he noticed when Haruka placed his hand against the slightly damp boards of the wall. "You're inside one of our ships. They belong to my family. Matsuoka."

Haruka looked at the damp boards, the drip slowly coming from the ceiling. "Not much of a boat."

The boy shrugged. "One of our lesser ones, where we house our lesser prisoners."

Haruka looked away, angry that he'd been drawn into conversation again. He stood up and looked around the hold. Besides the pallet, there was nothing else.

He couldn't take it anymore. Still not looking at the guard boy, he made a break for the door. The knob turned under his hand, but--

"Hey!" The boy was pushing him back. "What do you think you're doing? Do you know how much trouble I would get into if you got out?"

Haruka didn't even bother arguing. He shoved, but the boy shoved back. It devolved very quickly into a wrestling match. The boy was stronger but Haruka was slipperier, and so he had just managed to get back to the door when--

"What the _hell_?"

Somebody else opened the door. It was not his grandma. Haruka peered around the newcomer to see out into the hall, hoping that maybe she was behind him. The man, meanwhile, had started talking to the guard boy. "What the hell are you doing in here, Rin?"

"Watching the prisoner."

He snorted. "Right. The scrawny ten year old kid is really dangerous." The newcomer was a tall man, grown-up but obviously still quite young, and he was smiling at the two of them. Still, he was large enough to block the door, and Haruka, while still angry, didn't quite have the guts to push by him, or even the guts to correct him about his age.

"Let's leave the kid alone, all right? His business ain't with you."

The guard boy looked at the new man and leaned against his arms in a huff. "Maybe I was just bored. You never let me do nothing around here."

"Oh really?" He grabbed Rin by the hair, tugging it playfully. "You got plenty of chores, kid, and you somehow always manage to wriggle out of them at the last minute. Don't come complaining to me."

The man was opening the door and shoving Rin out first. Rin was saying something as he was pushed out, almost whining, but it was in a good-natured sort of way, as if Haruka no longer interested to him. 

Even though the boy had done nothing but annoy him, part of Haruka was disappointed to see him go. If he couldn't be with his grandma, some company was better than none. "Wait," said Haruka. "What am I supposed to--"

The tall man turned around and briefly regarded Haruka as if children were a strange breed of animal he'd never dealt with before. "Right. I came to bring you this." He shoved a packet of waxy looking paper at Haru. Haru unwrapped it and saw a pile of dried squid.

He hated squid, but he was so hungry that he knew he would eat it. The stringy, dried up pieces looked about how Haruka's stomach felt. He looked back up at the tall pirate.

"Someone'll be in to check on you soon. Don't worry about it."

"But I--"

The man smiled at him. "Not too much longer now. I promise." His smile was kind, but that didn't change the pain that swelled in Haruka's heart when the door closed behind them. He heard the latch turn and sank back down on the pallet to wait for his grandmother and try to eat the food.

~

Time passed. The squid was a forgotten memory, (and not a fond one at that,) when the door creaked open once more and this time it was the younger boy.

"Go away."

"You're too chicken to come out?" Rin leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms. "What's a matter? You afraid to see where I live?"

"I don't care where you live," said Haruka.

"Fine. Stay in here and cry about your grandma then."

Haruka hadn't been crying, though part of him might have wished he had been. At least crying was something to do. He sighed and stood up. "If it'll get you off my case...."

"All right!" Haruka wasn't looking at Rin, but it sounded like genuine enthusiasm in Rin's voice when he said it. "Come on. I'll take you to the big ship."

There was a railing looking right out over the ocean, and a cool breeze coming from the water. When they were at the top and could finally rest, Haruka took a deep breath. The sun had been up for a long time, but back in the hold there was barely any difference. He was so grateful to be outside again that he stood there for a second with his eyes closed, breathing in the air.

"Hey." Rin caught his attention. If he was bemused over Haruka staring off into space, he didn't mention it. "You want something else to eat?" He shoved a packet of something at Haru. "Pirate bento. Eat up, yeah?"

It wasn't anything fancy, and they sat on the deck in the sun and ate it with their fingers, but it was the best meal Haru had had in days, or at least that was what it felt like.

For how obnoxious Haruka had found him in the hold, Rin wasn't bad company as they ate. He still talked too much, of course, but he told Haruka interesting things, like what it was like to live on one of the pirate ships and how he wanted to live here, on the big one, when he was strong enough to do the work.

"Are there a lot of children around here?" asked Haruka.

"Not really, no. Just me and my baby sister. That's why I want to hurry up and get big so I can have fr--" He cut himself off just in time. "So I can be around people my own age, I mean."

If Haruka had wanted to, he could have made something of Rin's slip-up, mocked Rin like Rin had had tried to mock him earlier, but he only nodded. He didn't like being cruel, generally, and something in particular made him not want to be cruel to Rin.

The meal was good, but it left Haruka that much more eager to find his grandmother. Before Haruka could ask any questions about her, though, Rin was already barreling on to another topic of conversation. 

"I don't even know your name. I know your old lady's named Nanase, but what's your name?"

"It's my name, too," said Haruka coldly. "She's my grandmother."

"I meant your given name, dummy."

"Haruka."

"That's a girl's name."

"So?"

Rin sniggered. "It's ok," he said, although Haruka still objected to the pitying tone he was using. "I have a girly name too, but I'm a boy. My sister has a boyish name but she's a girl. My mother told me that it doesn't really signify."

"Whatever," said Haruka. "Are you gonna sit here feeding me all day or are you going to tell me where my grandma is?"

Rin looked thoughtful. "I guess we'll go to the cabins. She might be talking to the captain there."

Haruka nodded, eager to get going, but before they could, Rin stood up, dusted his hands off self-importantly, and picked up the handkerchief their lunch had been wrapped in. "Of course," Rin said, flapping the piece of cloth theatrically before tucking it in his pocket. Haruka just kept from rolling his eyes. "We need to go up several decks. I hope you can climb ropes."

~

Rin led him through a trapdoor on the afterdeck. The dark room they jumped down into smelled foul and oily because there were piles of coiled rope, which cushioned their fall. Rin motioned to a small staircase with a lighted door at the top of it. "That's the captain's cabin up there. I know a good place for us to spy from."

The room he led them to was laid out with fancy tatami mats and a long, low table. There were shelves in the corner with various knickknacks stacked up on them, and Rin showed him that behind the shelves there was just enough room for the two of them to hide behind.

"Lucky you're smaller than I am," Rin said with a grin.

"Am not," said Haruka.

Before another argument could get underway, there was a shout from behind them. Haruka and Rin both turned to see, gathered at the large doors, a whole group of men. Towards the back, looking like she was bored with the proceedings, was Haruka's grandmother. Both children stared in shock for a second, but Haruka started towards her.

"Rin!" The tall man from before was there too. When Haruka tried to push past him once more to get to his grandmother, the tall man caught him around the armpits and held him back. "Rin, what the _hell_ are you doing here?"

"I--I wasn't-- I was just." Haruka didn't even bother to look at Rin; all of his attention was on his grandmother. She was still wearing the grubby jacket she'd had on when they had gone fishing, but her white hair was falling down from where she'd pinned it back. Her expression was distant, almost bored, but when she heard the commotion and saw him standing there, he could see the deep line that formed between her brows whenever she was angry or concentrating.

"Haruka!"

He didn't shout. He saved his energy for fighting with the tall man, not that it was doing him much good.

"God--fucking-- _dammit_ , Rin," the tall man was saying. He was holding a struggling Haruka with one arm and Rin with another. "Take him back right now or--"

"You can deal with him later," said a much calmer voice, and all of them stopped moving to look toward the speaker. "Her child can come with us."

"No," said his grandmother, and Haruka's heart sank after the brief hope that he'd be able to talk with her again. "That won't be necessary. You did make a promise to me."

The man (Haruka wondered if he was the captain) smiled thinly at them. "I did. But perhaps we can finalize our discussion with the child here, Nanase-san." Haruka realized belatedly that that remark had been directed towards his grandmother, although she barely even reacted to it. The captain went on. "Rin." Rin, standing motionless and petrified by Haruka's side now, jumped.

"You have chores to do."

"Yes, sir."

"Get to it."

Rin nodded, his face gray and sick-looking. Haruka almost felt bad; Rin was a braggart, annoying and obnoxious, but he'd been trying to help Haruka, hadn't he?

“Rails,” the man said, turning, still quite calm. “Take the kid back to the hold. The captain’s here.” 

Haru barely had time to register the words before a hand was closing on his shoulder, pulling him roughly backwards. He gathered himself to struggle, but as he was dragged through the doorway another man brushed past him into the room. He walked so quickly, so purposefully, that Haru didn't have time to see much except a blur of black and white, which were the only colors the man wore, except for the gleam of gold buckles on his boots. 

The instant Haru’s grandmother saw the man, her face hardened so suddenly and dramatically that Haru was shocked into complete stillness. She raised her chin, narrowed her eyes, and leveled the captain with a stare. Her expression was full of triumph and tinged with defeat, and Haru nearly didn’t recognize her.

As the door swung shut between them, Haru watched her lips twist into a grim smile.

He never saw her again.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the prologue to an ongoing series written by [Kendra](http://revtomdildomolar.tumblr.com) and [Bri](http://koumatora.tumblr.com). We've also made a separate tumblr for this project, [which you can find here](http://pirateswam.tumblr.com). Please follow for future updates and feel free to drop us a line with any questions you have about this AU. :)


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